A broker who cont-acted Mortgage Introducer said all three mortgage applications he tried on the MTE Standalone system, launched to all brokers only last month, had failed and that MTE had blamed the lenders.
Dean Bainbridge, director of DKB Mortgages, said: “I have tried three applications – one for Nationwide and for Northern Rock and a Northern Rock agreement-in-principle. All failed and MTE blamed the lenders.
“ There seems to be a distinct lack of commitment from lenders towards this ‘platform’. Northern Rock, for instance, pushes its CD-based online system yet cannot be bothered to get the MTE system working. Nationwide has known of a fault for six weeks yet cannot be bothered to fix it. This system is to be avoided. Stick to lenders’ websites. At least they work.”
However, Mark Lofthouse, chief executive of Mortgage Brain, said the system has been fully supported by lenders. “20 lenders are live on the MTE system now which represents just under 70 per cent of mortgages sold in the UK.
“ :Another ten to 15 lenders are on the way to joining. Thousands of brokers use the system every week. To say it doesn’t work is simply not true. But we will do everything we can to help this broker.”
Ron Stout, assistant director of public relations at Northern Rock, said: “We would need more information to find out why the application failed but we can confirm that Northern Rock is committed to providing good service through all its distribution channels, including MTE.”
